Dead Rekindled is up again[sign in to see URL]At last I here you [sign in to see URL] last. It took a while but it's back, not that I can be arsed to update the damn thing anymore. Anyways, hope you like the new front page, only took two hours ....Hopefully it'll bring more people here too though. Btw: I heard there's a Day remake on the way.

I'll be around soon, just wait around and I shall return - got work and am busy at the mo though. Till then, Alex.

--- "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Re: Dead Rekindled is up againI have a plan, but not a lone one, I need, if possible your help. That being you Mike. I fancy finishing off the site. Well, updating it so it's at least complete. So, fancy helping? I want you to help with the Land page if that's okay. All I want is your thoughts or a review, like you've done with COTLD and Day. I can do the Dawn remake, and then that's it.
Other than that, I'll alter the design of the pages and that'll be Dead Rekindled - DONE AND DUSTED!
How about it?
500-1000 words is all I'm asking for.

-Al

--- "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Thoughts on [sign in to see URL] like a eulogy. But I'll gladly do it, because, after all, I waited for that movie for YEARS. Give me a few days to acquire the DVD and so forth to refresh my memory.

Day remake? One was released recently. Day 2: Contagium. Unofficial, but licensed prequel/sequel. Having read only a bit of the plot, I'm calling it "Children of the Day of the Dead". Maybe when I hit the stores for Land, I'll get this one, too. And maybe I won't bother with fake sequels. I'll try to NOT buy it.

Then there's Night 3-D. Egads in 2-D.

--- "Where life had no value, death sometimes had it's price. That is why the bounty killers appeared."

Re: Dead Rekindled is up againOkay, here's my review/thoughts for Dawn of the Dead 04. It needs editing and perhaps you'll be able to help. Be honest, I know my grammar is slightly off at times - so help me out. What should I add to the review for example and can you spot any glaring errors in spelling or grammar etc. Feel free to edit it. I need assurance that this is okay.
I watched Dawn04 this morning, took notes and wrote this in about 2 and a bit hours. Word count clocks in at 1700 btw, way more than I ever [sign in to see URL] the next post for the review

--- "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Re: Dead Rekindled is up againMy Thoughts - Dawn 04
“Oh my god, sacrilege!” screamed many die-hard dead trilogy fans. This on hearing that Dawn of the Dead, the 1978 horror classic was to be remade in early 2003. The shock, distaste and anger at the news of this remake was echoed on forums across the internet, some calling for the heads of Zach Snyder (Director) and James Gunn (Screenwriter). I don’t like to admit but I was a whining critic-before-it’s-even-out-yet too, albeit silent in my anger compared to the ones who sought blood as the only option to stop this film from going ahead. Hmmm…I wonder if either Snyder or Gunn actually got any death threats. Yeah, probably…When I think of the mad people who threatened the cast, crew and whoever else involved in the film, I picture some fat, zit-faced teenager running amok, naked onto the set while they were filming this remake and indiscriminately attacking everyone and moaning about their ethical wrongdoings, “You can’t remake Dawn of the Dead. You’ll make George cry.”
I had my opinions and wasn’t best pleased with the news of the hollywood-ization of another great horror film, not great though, beyond great – superb or exceptional! Dawn of the Dead, that being the original is hard to outdo, because it has so much substance to it. Viewers bond with the characters, feeling their melancholy and uncertainty in what is for the characters is the madness of the uneasy future. One in which the irrationality of it all and doubt is all they know and where hope is the commodity needed, not the items in the mall. As with all George Romero’s dead films there is the underlining sub-text or theme, his protest. It’s been said that with Dawn of the Dead, it’s the idealism and want of the age, especially in the 1970’s, where materialism had started to become put before spirituality. Perhaps it was Romero’s religious upbringing and the decline in values, attitudes and beliefs around the era that supports this sub-text. For the zombies in Dawn of the Dead, the mall is their church, an instinctive way to relax, receive therapy and comfort by being consumers before they died and now as the undead.
However, this film wasn’t a literal remake as some at first thought it would be. The characters aren’t the same and with that everything is different. These films are always mainly character driven. There is no Peter, Roger, Steven or Fran. Instead we are introduced to a bunch of whole new and interesting characters, each unique. All that was taken from the original was obviously the zombies, along with the shopping mall, and if you count three of the original’s actors, them too, but in small cameo roles. With nearly three decades of progress, culture and people will change; this is unavoidable, so to replicate the feel of a film made in the 1970’s would’ve been rather silly anyway.
What change there has been is certainly present if you consider the developments in the way films are being shot nowadays and technology, and in this remake you’ll see the whole shebang.
The film opens with Anna (Sarah Polley), doing her rounds in the hospital where she works, finishing and then leaving off like any other normal day, with hints of the impending epidemic in her face. In the hospital, she talks to her friend and there’s mention of a bite wound, along with another victim being trawled through on a hospital bed as she leaves for home. On the drive back home it’s like any other day, nothing is out of place, just an ordinary day….or so she thinks. On the radio in her car an announcer talks with reference to the beginnings of the end, but Anna swiftly tunes it into another radio station playing the Stereophonics, with the song ‘Have a nice day’ blaring out. It of cause is purposely ironic, but for Anna, this is any other day, she has no knowledge of anything being wrong with the world. While some poor !@#$ is being eating alive, she like many others is carrying on, residing in the norm of life, yet the problem will manifest. When she gets home, a young neighbour, Vivien, is prancing about on roller skates having fun like any other child at her age. Again, all things are normal, nothing is out of place. Inside at home, her partner Lewis lies back on bed watching TV and there’s talk of some contestant being voted of an American Idol-like show. “The chubby one, he has such a cute voice” Anna groans. Moments later it shows them getting loved up in the shower and then it cuts to a “Special TV bulletin” which they both miss due to loving up in the shower. The next morning – the alarm clock ticks and Lewis is awakened by the creaking of the bedroom door, which glides open to show Vivien, in half darkness. She walks forward into the light and then everything that seemed normal before becomes overshadowed by poor Vivien, now a fucked up little zombie, her top lip missing and sporting a bloodied face from eating the flesh of her neighbours and other sorry people . Lewis, unaware of the danger goes to tend her in shock at the sight, while Anna stands by. Lewis turns, then – Crunch! He’s bitten in the neck and falls back. By this point Anna quickly locks out Vivien, then moves in to help Lewis whose blood is spewing out rapidly from the neck wound. She picks out the phone to call for help, yet the emergency services are too busy. Then, Lewis, dies….only to return seconds later, living dead, now pursuing Anna, who scared out of her wits, locks herself in the bathroom away from her crazed undead partner. Panicked by the madness inside it’s only after escaping Lewis she sees the scales of it outside. More crazed running zombies, burning houses, speeding cars, emergency sirens, explosions – utter chaos! One neighbour, points his gun at Anna from across the street telling her to “Stand back” only seconds later to be hit by an ambulance, While others, those living are being chased by zombies. On her way out of her neighbourhood, Anna passes a lady surveying the sight of the utter chaos, or what she may think is Anarchy hitting home, then is taken down by one of the running zombies. Finishing her journey on a motorway, Anna crashes her car into tree, just after passing exploding petrol stations, a nude and dazed woman and tackling a living, not undead postal worker who she thinks wants to steal her car. Waking up, she’s greeting by the sight of a shotgun in her face, being held by Kenneth (Ving Rhames), a cop. “Say something” Kenneth asks, “Please” Anna replies. Moments later, they’re joined by Michael, and a young couple, Andre and his pregnant wife, Luda. Without any other options the mall, only feet away is their only hope of security for the time being. Thus beginning, Dawn of the Dead, the not so literal remake. Inside the mall, relationships are formed, and within the ranks of the survivors battles are fought, though mainly through words. Inside the mall, the numbers grow, and outside, the numbers grow too, because outside the zombies who know of the mall instinctively and want to get in, for to them this is still a place of great comfort. The parallels with the original can be seen, if only through situation with how the characters behave, living and dead.
Like the original, tensions are high and the survivors fight each other, are lost in there own minds, and in trying to understand the mayhem come to acknowledge that the mall although safe isn’t the best for them. In the original Dawn, by the end their ready to clear off and get the hell out sick of the place, realizing the mall is nothing special, and it’s the same in Dawn of the Dead 2004. One of the best lines of the films for me reflects this. Just after three characters are killed off in a type of in-war between survivors, as they lay dead, covered with a blanket the other survivors don’t know what to say. In reflection of the deaths they are silent, not knowing what to believe anymore and how to react with all that has happened. Kenneth, the cop walks into shot and says “Some things are worse than death, and one of then is sitting and waiting to die.”
There are a lot of differences and similarities if we are to compare this an the original, however this stands firm on its and I personally wouldn’t call it a remake, if anything by name it is only a remake, and of course the setting, the mall and the situation – Characters make the film! It’s been called a re-imagining and it is, not a piss poor copy like a lot the remakes that have come from Hollywood in recent years. Like many horror films of today this has a fast pace and action which is in your face, so it’s adapted and been influenced not just by the original but all horror, especially from the late-80’s up until 2003, with films like 28 Days Later featuring running zombies and changes in the looks and aesthetic, with greater emphasis on gore, guns and death. If you also take into account the highly successful video-games like Resident Evil and the movies this also takes affect in the moulding of Snyder and Gunn’s re-imagining of Romero’s film. Though I must say, Dawn of the Dead 2004 is far superior compared Paul W.S. Anderson’s turdy Resident Evil movies. The vast number of survivors compared to original if we discount the bikers is huge, signalling this greater emphasis on ways to kill each of them off. By the end, the number dwindles down to only a handful and their fate…well, I don’t want to spoil much else so see for yourself.

To conclude, I say a smashing film, definitely worth a watch, though maybe slightly mediocre. Enjoy it!
4/5 - I take back anything I said bad about this prior to seeing this. And the people who wanted to execute Gunn and Snyder should hang their heads in shame!

--- "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Re: Dead Rekindled is up againGood review, but perhaps too forgiving? I spotted only three grammer errors and some colorful language. The lack of politics in the remake leads into my review of Land(which I'll likely do on the weekend). It's all about the subtext. Here is your review, as proofreaded by meselph twys(next post).

--- "Where life had no value, death sometimes had it's price. That is why the bounty killers appeared."

Re: Dead Rekindled is up again-------------
My Thoughts - Dawn 04
“Oh my god, sacrilege!” screamed many die-hard dead trilogy fans. This on hearing that Dawn of the Dead, the 1978 horror classic was to be remade in early 2003. The shock, distaste and anger at the news of this remake was echoed on forums across the internet, some calling for the heads of Zach Snyder (Director) and James Gunn (Screenwriter). I don’t like to admit but I was a whining critic-before-it’s-even-out-yet too, albeit silent in my anger compared to the ones who sought blood as the only option to stop this film from going ahead. Hmmm…I wonder if either Snyder or Gunn actually got any death threats. Yeah, probably…When I think of the mad people who threatened the cast, crew and whoever else involved in the film, I picture some fat, zit-faced teenager running amok, naked onto the set while they were filming this remake and indiscriminately attacking everyone and moaning about their ethical wrongdoings, “You can’t remake Dawn of the Dead. You’ll make George cry.”
I had my opinions and wasn’t best pleased with the news of the hollywood-ization of another great horror film, not great though, beyond great – superb or exceptional! Dawn of the Dead, that being the original is hard to outdo, because it has so much substance to it. Viewers bond with the characters, feeling their melancholy and uncertainty in what is, for the characters, the madness of the uneasy future. One in which the irrationality of it all and doubt is all they know and where hope is the commodity needed, not the items in the mall. As with all George Romero’s dead films there is the underlining sub-text or theme, his protest. It’s been said that with Dawn of the Dead, it’s the idealism and want of the age, especially in the 1970’s, where materialism had started to become put before spirituality. Perhaps it was Romero’s religious upbringing and the decline in values, attitudes and beliefs around the era that supports this sub-text. For the zombies in Dawn of the Dead, the mall is their church, an instinctive way to relax, receive therapy and comfort by being consumers before they died and now as the undead.
However, this film wasn’t a literal remake as some at first thought it would be. The characters aren’t the same and with that everything is different. These films are always mainly character driven. There is no Peter, Roger, Steven or Fran. Instead we are introduced to a bunch of whole new and interesting characters, each unique. All that was taken from the original was obviously the zombies, along with the shopping mall, and if you count three of the original’s actors, them too, but in small cameo roles. With nearly three decades of progress, culture and people will change; this is unavoidable, so to replicate the feel of a film made in the 1970’s would’ve been rather silly anyway.
What change there has been is certainly present if you consider the developments in the way films are being shot nowadays and technology. In this remake you’ll see the whole shebang.
The film opens with Anna (Sarah Polley), doing her rounds in the hospital where she works, finishing and then leaving off like any other normal day, with hints of the impending epidemic in her face. In the hospital, she talks to her friend and there’s mention of a bite wound, along with another victim being trawled through on a hospital bed as she leaves for home. On the drive back home it’s like any other day, nothing is out of place, just an ordinary day….or so she thinks. On the radio in her car an announcer talks with reference to the beginnings of the end, but Anna swiftly tunes it into another radio station playing the Stereophonics, with the song ‘Have a nice day’ blaring out. It of cause is purposely ironic, but for Anna, this is any other day, she has no knowledge of anything being wrong with the world. While some poor !@#$ is being eating alive, she like many others is carrying on, residing in the norm of life, yet the problem will manifest. When she gets home, a young neighbour, Vivien, is prancing about on roller skates having fun like any other child at her age. Again, all things are normal, nothing is out of place. Inside at home, her partner Lewis lies back on bed watching TV and there’s talk of some contestant being voted of an American Idol-like show. “The chubby one, he has such a cute voice” Anna groans. Moments later it shows them getting loved up in the shower and then it cuts to a “Special TV bulletin” which they both miss due to loving up in the shower. The next morning – the alarm clock ticks and Lewis is awakened by the creaking of the bedroom door, which glides open to show Vivien, in half darkness. She walks forward into the light and then everything that seemed normal before becomes overshadowed by poor Vivien, now a fucked up little zombie, her top lip missing and sporting a bloodied face from eating the flesh of her neighbours and other sorry people . Lewis, unaware of the danger goes to tend her in shock at the sight, while Anna stands by. Lewis turns, then – Crunch! He’s bitten in the neck and falls back. By this point Anna quickly locks out Vivien, then moves in to help Lewis whose blood is spewing out rapidly from the neck wound. She picks out the phone to call for help, yet the emergency services are too busy. Then, Lewis, dies….only to return seconds later, living dead, now pursuing Anna, who scared out of her wits, locks herself in the bathroom away from her crazed undead partner. Panicked by the madness inside it’s only after escaping Lewis she sees the scales of it outside. More crazed running zombies, burning houses, speeding cars, emergency sirens, explosions – utter chaos! One neighbour, points his gun at Anna from across the street telling her to “Stand back” only seconds later to be hit by an ambulance, while others, those living are being chased by zombies. On her way out of her neighbourhood, Anna passes a lady surveying the sight of the utter chaos, or what she may think is Anarchy hitting home, then is taken down by one of the running zombies. Finishing her journey on a motorway, Anna crashes her car into tree, just after passing exploding petrol stations, a nude and dazed woman and tackling a living, not undead postal worker who she thinks wants to steal her car. Waking up, she’s greeting by the sight of a shotgun in her face, being held by Kenneth (Ving Rhames), a cop. “Say something” Kenneth asks, “Please” Anna replies. Moments later, they’re joined by Michael, and a young couple, Andre and his pregnant wife, Luda. Without any other options the mall, only feet away is their only hope of security for the time being. Thus beginning, Dawn of the Dead, the not so literal remake. Inside the mall, relationships are formed, and within the ranks of the survivors battles are fought, though mainly through words. Inside the mall, the numbers grow, and outside, the numbers grow too, because outside the zombies who know of the mall instinctively and want to get in, for to them this is still a place of great comfort. The parallels with the original can be seen, if only through situation with how the characters behave, living and dead.
Like the original, tensions are high and the survivors fight each other, are lost in there own minds, and in trying to understand the mayhem come to acknowledge that the mall although safe isn’t the best for them. In the original Dawn, by the end their ready to clear off and get the hell out sick of the place, realizing the mall is nothing special, and it’s the same in Dawn of the Dead 2004. One of the best lines of the films(for me) reflects this. Just after three characters are killed off in a type of in-war between survivors, as they lay dead, covered with a blanket the other survivors don’t know what to say. In reflection of the deaths they are silent, not knowing what to believe anymore and how to react with all that has happened. Kenneth, the cop walks into shot and says “Some things are worse than death, and one of then is sitting and waiting to die.”
There are a lot of differences and similarities if we are to compare this an the original, however this stands firm on its own and I personally wouldn’t call it a remake, if anything by name it is only a remake, and of course the setting, the mall and the situation – Characters make the film! It’s been called a re-imagining and it is, not a piss poor copy like a lot the remakes that have come from Hollywood in recent years. Like many horror films of today this has a fast pace and action which is in your face, so it’s adapted and been influenced not just by the original but all horror, especially from the late-80’s up until 2003, with films like 28 Days Later featuring running zombies and changes in the looks and aesthetic, with greater emphasis on gore, guns and death. If you also take into account the highly successful video-games like Resident Evil and the movies this also takes affect in the moulding of Snyder and Gunn’s re-imagining of Romero’s film. Though I must say, Dawn of the Dead 2004 is far superior compared to Paul W.S. Anderson’s turdy Resident Evil movies. The vast number of survivors compared to original if we discount the bikers is huge, signalling this greater emphasis on ways to kill each of them off. By the end, the number dwindles down to only a handful and their fate…well, I don’t want to spoil much else so see for yourself.

To conclude, I say a smashing film, definitely worth a watch, though maybe slightly mediocre. Enjoy it!
4/5 - I take back anything I said bad about this prior to seeing this. And the people who wanted to execute Gunn and Snyder should hang their heads in shame!
------------

--- "Where life had no value, death sometimes had it's price. That is why the bounty killers appeared."

Re: Dead Rekindled is up againThanks mate, very helpful of you. Can't wait for the Land review.

laters,
alex

--- "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Re: Dead Rekindled is up againAbout that Land review: I rented the movie a few hours ago and sat down with a friend to watch it. My friend was very befuddled by what was happening. He said "this isn't a zombie movie". I share a similar negative perception of the [sign in to see URL] when you suggested I do a review something else occured to me-the hidden subtext. It's not an anti-Bush film, though it reads that way and was optioned as such. When Land was an unused script called Day of the Dead, it was an anti-Reagan film. Now it's something that shouldn't have gotten into theaters. It's an anti-studio film in which Romero injects himself as the hero.

--- "Where life had no value, death sometimes had it's price. That is why the bounty killers appeared."

It's not an anti-Bush film, though it reads that way and was optioned as such. When Land was an unused script called Day of the Dead, it was an anti-Reagan film. Now it's something that shouldn't have gotten into theaters. It's an anti-studio film in which Romero injects himself as the hero.

I don't know whether to agree or not. I've read on a few occasions that the film’s subtext is related to our times and American power in general at the moment, and how it conducts itself with the American people and the world. It’s said that after 9/11 and America’s actions in Afghanistan, Romero did a re-write.
Kaufman does remind me of Bush, anyway. He's an arrogant, corrupt, baffoon-like man who pushes his weight on everyone and doesn’t understand reason or compassion with anyone else bit his own kind, just politics. Though if anything it is attacking conservatism and aristocracy, so yes you could say this was Romero's rehashing of the original Day of the Dead script, its ideas and situation, albeit with political overtones which relate to today as well. Those who have live in Fiddler's Green, those who don't live in the shanty town next door, doing all the hard work for the rich folks. However, even if the have the money such as in Chollo's case you won’t necessary be wanted. He’s considered sub-human to Kaufman.
I don’t know why but Land has always reminded of that film Metropolis, a clearly anti-capitalist film where the workers are exploited and they revolt – but without zombies and with a cloned robot. The rich live above, and the poor below. To remain stable, perfect equilibrium is needed, so the poor for the rich above need to keep working or everything will breakdown. That reminds me of Land, but it’s society in general I guess. More than anything what's missing is respect between the classes, as seen in Land.

Okay, have a good time writing the review and try to not just focus on just the subtext cause there’s a lot to this film other than that. It might be worth noting for example the mood Romero beautifully captured, as like in all his other films.

Kaufman quotes:

Kaufman: We do not negotiate with terrorists!

Kaufman: In a world where the dead are returning to life, the word "trouble" loses much of its meaning.

Kaufman: [seeing Cholo as a zombie] !@#$ Spick bastard!

Last edited by knights, 3/11/2006, 2:51 pm

--- "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club